


The Rains may be Blessed down in Africa, but the Nile is Not. Please Drink Responsibly!

by SpiritGriffon



Series: Atem and Seto's Unending Game AU [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alcohol, Blueshipping, But like just a mutual crush they don't actually get together here, Half-Sibling Incest, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Like I almost kicked this thing up to M bc of his potty mouth but teens swear too so it's fine, Mostly manga/DSoD verse but also mentions that one weird PS2 game because I felt like it, Multi, Needles, Prideshipping, REALLY bad language on Kaiba's part, that almost happened in Egypt before Atem died. Nothing gross happens here dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 23:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19328470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritGriffon/pseuds/SpiritGriffon
Summary: Upon reaching the afterlife, Kaiba Seto is forced to admit that attaining the title of "Duel King" wasn't the only lose end he and Atem hadn't cleaned up....And he really should have brought some clean water.(Prequel to The Isolation Game!)





	The Rains may be Blessed down in Africa, but the Nile is Not. Please Drink Responsibly!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! With this, I'm going to say my account is officially off hiatus! I'm back!~  
> For a bit of explanation: in late 2016, I wrote the first chapter of The Isolation Game. It was before Dark Side of Dimensions released overseas and the DVD came out in Japan, and I had every intention of going into the movie blind, so I'd avoided most spoilers. I knew as soon as I saw the movie in theaters (and later watched a far more accurate fansub) that I wanted to rework that first chapter to fit with the movie before I wrote the second one-  
> But in early 2017, before I was able to do that, my Grandpa died. I put most of my social media accounts on hiatus then, including both this one and my FFN account. Honestly, these last two years have been rough. I've been dealing with depression since I was about 12 years old, but it's never been worse than it was in 2017. I feel like I'm pretty much back on my feet now, and so I decided to take a look at my old unfinished fic and see if I wanted to still finish it or just mark it as a oneshot and abandon it.  
> I decided, upon rereading it, that I absolutely did want to finish it- but as it was a fic meant to be much darker and more serious in the second chapter, I felt I hadn't added in nearly enough backstory or foreshadowing to end the fic the way I wanted without it feeling like it got extremely dark out of absolutely nowhere. So, I decided to write a new chapter one.  
> And that chapter ended up being 18000+ words long. Oops. A separate oneshot it is, then.  
> I'm going to add a few notes here at the beginning of details not all my readers might know, and a much longer list at the end. Google was my friend this time around.  
> (Also- I use the Japanese names for most things in this fandom, but use the official English names for cards. I do make an exception to this rule for the three God Cards, however.)
> 
> Nakama- A Japanese word meaning something between "Best Friends" and "Companions," referring to a group of friends.
> 
> Game vs. Match- In the real life Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, the game is played best out of three. It takes two Games to win a Match.
> 
> Death-T- A deadly theme park Kaiba designed to test Atem and rematch him, in hopes that forcing Atem to experience "The Sensation of Death" would stop the relentless nightmares he'd been having since Atem forced him to hallucinate being killed by his Duel Monsters cards, over and over for an entire night as punishment for trying to steal Sugoroku's Blue Eyes card. It results in Atem learning of Seto's past from Mokuba and shattering Seto's heart so he could piece himself together as the person he used to be before Gozaburo came into his life. This leaves Seto in a coma for the next six months.
> 
> Dragon's Mirror- A fusion spell that can summon a dragon-type monster using materials from the graveyard (vs. Polymerization's materials from the hand or field.)
> 
> Mirror Force- A trap that deflects one attack back at the attacker, destroying all monsters on that side of the field in Attack position. It doesn't actually deal damage, though.
> 
> 38 degrees celsius- About 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
> 
> Ten kilos- About 20 pounds.
> 
> Nii-sama- A very respectful way of saying older brother.
> 
> Iie- A Japanese word meaning house- Pronounced like EA (as in Electronic Arts)

It said something about Kaiba Seto that his first thought, upon reaching the afterlife, was ;  _ “I’m going to get a tan, aren’t I?” _ and that it was an entirely negative thought.

This wouldn’t upset his plans for the launch of his new Duel Disk in America- but he had a photoshoot scheduled for next week in one of the top fashion magazines in Japan, and the current state of the beauty industry there valued pale skin to an unreasonable degree. It was a trend he could normally accommodate with no issue- he was a gamer with a desk job, he didn’t spend much time in direct sun. Most of the world didn’t even suspect that his heritage was mixed, even with his name.

But the truth was that he had a grandmother from Egypt, and when he tanned, he tanned  _ fast _ and he tanned  _ dark _ .

He sighed and pushed open the door on his half-buried pod, wincing at the sudden brightness. The heat wasn’t much better. It was worse, in fact. And that city in the distance looked a very, very long way off.

He should have brought some bottled water.

He tested the ground with his boot before he climbed fully out- he must have looked silly, but it wouldn’t do to fall through the ground like a character in a poorly-made video game. He barked out a dark, private laugh as he set out, picturing his obituary in his mind.

_ Kaiba Seto- Died as he lived. Clipped through the floor. A true gamer to the end. _

His laugh settled into a series of quiet, borderline hysterical giggles. A wave of euphoria took over as the impossible nature of the situation began to truly register.

He’d made it to the afterlife.

He was  _ here. _

_ Atem was here…! _

He couldn’t have controlled the wave of manic energy if he’d wanted. Almost unbidden, his pace picked up, a swift walk into a jog into a full-on run. The heat, the glare, the distance, all of it was inconsequential! His Duel Disk hummed as his  _ Pulse _ swelled, sloughing the dimension’s destructive pressure off of his body in waves of pale blue-white light. He was only slightly out of breath when the rhythmic sound of leather on sand shifted to packed earth and then stone, his pace slowing only a few meters from the palace doors. 

He stopped. The guard's eyes were on him, but they made no move to stop him, save a single young man he assumed to be a messenger boy running deeper into the palace. Either security was extraordinarily lax (unlikely), or Atem knew he was here had given orders to allow him entry. Slowly, methodically, pointedly, he brushed the majority of excess sand off his clothes and adjusted his collar and coat. He cleared his throat as he schooled his expression into a prideful smirk and brushed his hair as back into place as was possible without dislodging his headgear. He began walking then, his movements nonchalant- lazy, even.

Atem had run beyond his grasp for nearly two years. It was his turn to wait, now.

A hint of giddiness bubbled up inside him as he passed by the palace’s occupants, though he didn’t let even the barest hint show. Atem had always been impatient- Kaiba could almost see him in his mind’s eye, knee bouncing, fingers tapping, asking his retainers why his rival was  _ taking so long _ .

Their duels didn’t begin with drawing cards, they never had- the  _ Game  _ was the centerpiece, but the lead up, the banter, the aftermath- the  _ Match _ encompassed all of it. This may very well be their final battle- he intended to play every second as the game master he was. He paused at a rather nice garden, taking in the scenery and then checking his nails with a pointedly bored expression. The pool of water near the wall made a pleasant trickling noise as the wind rippled the surface in a way that made his throat burn, but he gave no outward sign. Nothing short of listening to the hammering of his heart could have given his excitement away.  _ This is my opening move, Atem! _

He could see the door to the throne room from here, standing open, waiting for him. He strode up the stairs, just as confident as if he was the king himself, come to seize his rightful crown. Kaiba allowed himself a small smile. Maybe that’s _ exactly _ what he was.

The afternoon sun streamed from a window directly behind the throne, blocking his view of his rival’s face completely. It was an impressive effect, he’d admit, but it was also annoying. It was all he could do not to squint.

Instead, his eyes drifted down… right to his muscular, ebony thighs. His heart lurched into his throat as two realizations dawned on him in quick succession:

First, that he was wearing a skirt, and if he hadn’t had that sash around his waist and between his legs, his current angle would leave absolutely _ nothing _ to the imagination. As it was, he could see dangerously high.

Second, that Atem was… black. In all honesty, all this time his mental image of the Pharaoh he’d heard so much about had been akin to Yuugi in a moderately offensive Halloween costume. The realization that he had absolutely no clue what Atem’s face looked like made him nervous. More than he considered appropriate.  _ Way _ more than he was comfortable with.

Atem rose just as the sun dipped below the horizon, and for the first time, their eyes met.

The nervousness, the anxiety that had been building in Kaiba’s chest was pulled away like a cloth from a table in what was to him, an almost audible  _ whoosh _ . He knew this man. Oh, he looked different to be sure- the Other Yuugi’s loose, gravity defying curls and spikes were exchanged for nappy black hair, tightly coiffed and styled into a distinctive star shape, the edges just barely showing vibrant crimson, fading into blue towards the base of his neck. The unnatural colors were a distinctly different texture from the natural front- it had been colored with some kind of paint rather than properly dyed. His bangs, on the other hand, seemed to have been actually bleached, then coiled into his spikes and dreaded separately to fall and frame his face. And his face…

His lips were a hint thicker, his nose a bit wider. The color of his eyes had a few more flecks of blue at the top and scarlet at the bottom than Yuugi’s, which appeared a more solid lavender. His skin was a completely different color, of course.

But he looked every bit as much like the Other Yuugi as the light and dark halves had resembled each other. No one but a blind man could have mixed up Atem and Yuugi- but his previous form seemed an almost perfect medium between the two.

...Almost. Kaiba had always been able to tell the two apart with ease, but this man was distinctly one and the same with his rival. He let out a wordless noise of approval in the back of his throat as he activated his Duel Disk.  _ I’m ready for our Game to begin, Atem. _

But then, Atem wouldn’t have been his rival if he weren’t unpredictable. A bright, dazzling smile split the young man’s face for just a second- and then an instant later, too fast for Kaiba to process exactly what he was doing, Atem dashed down the steps three at a time- Kaiba took half a step back in reflex before Atem’s arms wrapped around his torso and his chest barreled into Kaiba’s stomach with an audible  _ thud _ .

For half a second, Kaiba forgot where he was. His mind- normally a finely tuned instrument, a marvel of processing, organization and creativity was utterly replaced by something... animalistic.  **Feral.**

_ Fear. Panic. Anger, revulsion, pain, FEAR- _

And then Atem laughed and the spell was broken as quickly as it had come over him. Kaiba coughed. Swallowed. His left hand was halfway to Atem’s hair, his right raised, ready to strike. His stomach lurched painfully and grumbled audibly. He forced himself to swallow again as bitter bile flooded in his mouth. He was going to be damn lucky if he could stop himself from vomiting, right there on the palace floor.

Atem nuzzled his nose into the folds of Kaiba’s shirt.

“I can’t believe you're really here!”

Kaiba pressed his knuckles into the shorter man’s shoulders, pushing him away. “No hugs. I don’t do hugs.” His throat was tight, his voice uncharastically husky.

Atem looked up then, met Kaiba’s eyes. His smile faded. 

“Are you alright? You don’t look… well…”

Atem’s eyes widened in abject horror as he took in his friend’s condition. He loosened his arms and stepped back to get a better view.

“Kaiba, you’re dissolving!”

Kaiba fully extricated himself from his rival’s unwanted grasp and gave the dark purple particles drifting off his clothing an unimpressed glare.

“My body is being pulled back to the other dimension.”

Atem gaped. Kaiba smirked.

“It’s not half so bad as it looks. These little particle clouds are only pulling an atom or two off at a time. The danger level is well within acceptable parameters at the moment. So long as the rate doesn't increase exponentially, I should be able to remain here for a few days before I even begin to notice the effects.”

Atem crossed his arms, brow furrowed. “Are you sure?”

Kaiba placed his hand on his hip. “Why would I put myself in unnecessary danger?” he challenged.

Atem huffed. “I certainly don’t know, but you do it all the time! The last time you tried to come here  _ being _ one of those times. You almost _ died _ then, if you’ve somehow forgotten.”

Kaiba scowled. A clumsy move, parried and defeated. He’d need to be far more careful if he intended to win this. He was out of practice. “You’re not wrong. But I am telling the truth- I have every intention of returning to Earth alive, if it is at all possible. Now…” Kaiba stepped back and raised his left arm. “Are we going to stand around and talk all day, or are you going to Duel me?”

Atem blinked. “Here? Now?”

“Now  _ that _ is a remarkably stupid question,” Kaiba growled.

“It really isn’t, and no. Hang on!” Atem held up his hand before an angry shout left the taller man’s lips. “First of all, my Duel Disk and cards are in my bedroom, not here.”

The flush of heat racing down Kaiba’s spine cooled. That made sense.“I can recreate a Duel Disk and your deck with Solid Vision using mine. There’s no need to go get them.”

Atem wrinkled his nose. “What is the point of a card game if you don’t use real cards? Anyway, we need to take this outside. I’ve seen what kind of shockwaves that new Duel Disk of yours can put out, and the throne room isn’t  _ that _ sturdy. I don’t think I can die again, but regardless, being crushed under two meters of solid rock doesn’t sound  _ fun _ .” 

Kaiba nervously looked at the ceiling. “...That’s fair.”

Atem waved at the back of the room- which Kaiba noticed for the first time, was filled with armed guards. A chill ran down his spine.

_ If I’d reflexively slapped Atem a few minutes ago… I’d be dead right now. _

The guards looked unhappy, and some were standing several feet in front of others. They’d noticed his little slip up, even though Atem hadn’t. He silently wondered how close he’d come to getting skewered without noticing.

Atem was scowling as two of his guards- dressed more extravagantly than the rest, so likely personal attendants or captains by Kaiba’s estimation- approached. 

“Take Kaiba to the eastern courtyard, and clear it.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice, a harsh, unusual tone reflected in it. “Tell everyone else to return to their posts. They should never have left them while I have an audience!”

One of the two men stepped forward, never taking his eyes off Kaiba. “Your majesty, you didn’t see, but…” He lowered his voice beyond where Kaiba could make it out. He didn’t see the point.

_ As if I don’t know what I did. _

Kaiba’s eyes were icy steel. Atem glanced back for a moment, then turned back to his guard.

“It didn’t happen.”

Kaiba bemusedly wondered if Atem thought he was whispering. He really wasn’t.

The guard was far less amused. “Your majesty, I saw-”

Atem’s eyes flashed. “It didn’t happen. Or do you intend you call your Pharaoh a liar? Who are you, to say your eyes know better than my judgement? Tell me, are you a god that walks among the people as well- nay, one so mighty as to hold more knowledge than myself!?”

Atem’s voice had risen to a shout by the final word. He took a step back, then bowed with a flourish. 

“O, tell me your name, great masked god, that I may sing to the people of your eternally unblinded eyes!”

The pharaoh’s words hit their mark- the man collapsed to Atem’s feet, sobbing for forgiveness. Every other man in the great hall fell to their knees- all but Kaiba.

Kaiba, who had for some reason he couldn’t fathom, had very,  _ very _ near done so himself. He’d  **never** seen Atem act like that before. He’d spent over half his life surrounded by Earth’s most powerful and ultra wealthy and yet- and yet…

He’d never felt the presence of a King until just now. It shook him.

He’d never felt so much admiration for his rival in his life. 

_ It was terrifying.  _

**It was beautiful.**

~~ He felt small, smaller than he had since Gozaburo, he hated that feeling, he hated that face, that voice, that man…! ~~

~~ He wanted to feel that power clash against him, push against his very being at full power, crush it down, down, strip all away and bend Atem over his throne with his hand on the small of his back and crown himself king…! ~~

~~ He wanted to feel that power enveloping him, surrounding him… He wanted to surrender his everything in service to his lord, feel his essence pouring inside him- he didn’t need air, he didn’t need blood, all he needed inside him was…! ~~

Kaiba’s eyes unfocused for perhaps three seconds as each thought flashed through his mind at the speed of light, each more unwanted than the last. His skin flushed furiously as the room seemed to grow smaller, tighter by the second.

He turned on his heel without warning, exiting the throne room with an emotionless “I passed through that garden on my way here. I’ll take myself.”

Atem may have called after him. He wasn’t paying attention. There was  _ no way in hell _ he was letting Atem see him red as an overripe tomato with his current…  _ issue. _

* * *

 

There were really no other words for it. Atem felt like shit.

His eyes stared sightlessly at the backs of his cards, his fingers sliding over the smooth plastic sleeves expertly as he shuffled his deck again, and again, and again…

_ How could I be so stupid? _

_ Pharaoh _ meant one thing- he had inherited the strongest Milinniuem item and had trained to use it from a young age, thereby developing various preternatural abilities.

That was all. His father was the Pharaoh of Egypt. His mother was a Nubian commoner, a beautiful woman who had caught his father’s fancy and had become his wife only days later. He’d been born the next year. Six months after that, Mana had been born to his father and his aunt. If Atem had lived another two years, he and Mana would have married themselves.

It made Atem want to retch every time he remembered that. There was a reason he’d barely spoken to his family beyond his sister since his journey to the afterlife. 

She, for one, listened to the summarization of what he’d gleaned from Yuugi’s biology class with a mix of horrified fascination and unbridled satisfaction. She’d caught on to the pattern of unending miscarriages and infant deaths versus sibling marriage when she was still alive, and her findings had been completely disregarded.

The rest of his family had been less than accepting of his twentieth century knowledge… on many subjects.

Atem sighed, drawing the top five cards in his deck in one fluid motion. Obelisk, Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Ra, and a second copy of Dark Magician. All high level monsters. A completely unusable hand.

What had Kaiba said, that time he threw the top card of his deck so hard that it embedded in the hand of one of Malik’s men and it turned out to be Blue Eyes? “I’m too good at this?”

_ Oh, I can relate. _

Atem had noticed Kaiba developing the ability to summon Blue Eyes and Obelisk to his hand at will before he left- and three blue eyes in an opening hand wasn’t overly useful. He wondered if Kaiba’s abilities had begun to spiral out of control like his had or if Kaiba’s wasn’t as unruly as Atem’s had become. 

He smiled. 

_ Or if he managed to rein it in by sheer force of will. I wouldn’t put it past him for an instant. Kaiba… _

His smile fell instantly, both of his blunders fresh in his mind once more.

He should have known better than to hug Kaiba in the first place. He’d seen Kaiba offer a hug to exactly one person, maybe twice in the whole time they’d known each other. He didn’t know what kind of madness had come over him to place himself on Mokuba’s level, even for an instant…

No, maybe that wasn’t true. Kaiba almost died trying to reach the afterlife, then came back and  _ succeeded  _ despite being aware of the very real danger. He’d achieved something never before done in the entire history of mankind… just to see _ him _ . 

Atem had worried for him, of course, but not so much he’d tried to deter his old rival in the slightest. A large part of him wondered if Kaiba was really after him as a person or him as the holder of the Duel King title, but regardless of the answer every inch of his body  _ ached  _ with the craving for a rematch. And when he’d walked in, coat flaring behind him, otherworldly blue lights glinting off every metallic surface, his mouth had formed that same arrogant smirk as always  _ but his eyes... _

Before, they’d always been either a blazing blue flame that threatened to incinerate the receiver of his gaze on the spot, or solid, absolute-zero ice, a glare that at once froze you to the spot, utterly disarmed, and was a perfect, impervious wall locked around his heart. But this was different- somewhere halfway between the two. Deep pools of pure, crystalline blue. Warm. Kind. Welcoming.

Atem had been so happy in that moment. He knew those eyes from another life.

But his relationship with Kaiba had been built on mutual respect, on trust. They could bare their hearts, wants, desires and fears all they wanted, as they could to no one else, just so long as it was at a respectful distance. No.  _ Because _ of that distance. 

He’d forgotten that, completely and utterly. If Kaiba had followed through and hit him as he’d intended to do, Atem wouldn’t have blamed him for an instant. 

Hell, dealing with a bruise would have been ten thousand times easier than trying to wrestle with Kaiba when he was dealing with internal turmoil. (And he had his own body now! It was his to damage as he wished! Gods, he missed Yuugi terribly but not having to live in a borrowed body again was _ incredible _ .)

But this, of course, led right into blunder number two.

It was so easy, now that his memory had returned, to slip back into his sixteen year old skin and become  _ Him _ again.

* * *

 

He hadn’t known the meaning of rules- what were rules, to a living god? All He needed was His games and His justice, His skills and His judgement absolute. Infallible. There wasn’t a single soul alive worthy of being called His equal, not really. Oh, Set  _ tried _ to be sure. He respected Set! The poor thing had been a begging, starving street rat when He’d found him. He’d given the boy water, food, fed him with His bare hands when Set was too weak to move. He had brought Set into His home, put the orphan boy’s talents to use as an apprentice scribe. Set had named Him friend and rival, then. A true rival- someone to refine each other against like waves across a shore. 

He had laughed at that! What a joke. Everything Set had in this world was a gift from Him!

But Set hadn’t meant it as a joke. 

The memory flooded back, as clearly if it had been yesterday and not three thousand years ago. Glimmering blue eyes, dark as the deep sea. The boy, perhaps twelve at most, smiled.

“I know that is true now. But I swear to you, I will keep my eyes on your back as I climb and claw- and it may take my whole life, but I will be your equal some day.”

The boy paused, clasped his hands in front of his chest and locked his eyes on them. “I... have been searching for a way to repay your kindness since the day we met. But how can one repay the gift of life- to a man that has the world already, more so? I feared it may be an impossible question, yet I prayed for revelation, and I watched…”

Set looked directly into his eyes. “And this is how it shall be done. My friend, you drift through life with no direction, no passion. You are the most talented man in the world yet neglect your studies for boredom- your heart beats but you do not live. I will give you that life- my eyes will push you forward when you stand still, my hands will grasp at your hem if you slow, and when the day comes that I catch you, that I am your equal… I will challenge you as you have never been before, and your heart will not beat but  **race** and you will feel alive for the first time, and I will have awakened my full potential and I will feel alive for the first time, and we will take our first real breath... together.”

He’d snorted. The idea of defeat was… asinine. “How are you going to beat me, when I’m worlds ahead of you? You’re not the only one improving.”

Set laughed. “You  _ could _ stay ahead of me forever, easily. But you won’t. You’re the laziest person I know- and I’m the hardest working.”

The change hadn’t been sudden. It was years before the whispers started.

_ “He’s a genius.” _

_ “No one has improved that quickly within living memory. Perhaps not in the history of Egypt.” _

_ “He’ll be the youngest ever to sit in the council, mark my words!” _

_ “He’s more skilled than the High Priest. He should take his spot- the sooner the better.” _

_ “The Pharaoh and his High Priest will lead Egypt into an era of glory that will last for a century!” _

Those deep blue eyes bore into his back, closer every day. Hands pulled at his clothing, weak at first, He knocked them aside without a second thought. But the hands came back endlessly, relentlessly, and they only needed to grasp Him once-

_ “Could he be more skilled than the Pharaoh himself?” _

_ “That’s blasphemy! He’s the greatest magician to ever live, of course not!” _

_ “Yes, but when is the last time he used his powers for more than a prank or cheating in the gambling hall?” _

When His back was turned, Set had wrapped his hands right around His neck.

The scenery shifted- His priests skirted the edge of the room, observing. Duos dissolved on the floor as his master lay sprawled gracelessly on his side, the aftereffect of His magic causing Set’s whole body to tremble and seize. He sat down on thin air- _ look at me, my priests! Look how much power still lies unused within me! Set, this was  _ **_Nothing_ ** \- , leaned His chin on His knuckles, a grin tearing its way across His face. He said nothing at first, waited for Set to open his eyes first.

Those strange, foreign blue eyes that had left their spot between his shoulder blades and met His straight on at the beginning of the Duel, filled with such assuredness and determination and misplaced joy.

Set opened one eye from his spot on the floor. Somehow, it still held the barest trace of ferocity.

“Still have a bit of climbing and clawing left to do, don’t you, Set?”

Such hurt had looked back at him then, a blue storm of sorrow that was equal parts flood and lightning, though no tears escaped.

He looked so sad, putting him back in his place almost didn’t even feel good.

* * *

 

The telltale  _ shwiff _ of plastic on plastic signaled the remainder of Atem’s deck falling to the ground as his hands grew increasingly limp, his mind far from his body. His head snapped up so quickly it was painful. A quick look around assured that he was still alone for the moment, and he buried his face in his hands, pressing his heels into his eyes until he saw stars. He didn’t cry, not this time, but his breath stuttered and gasped unsteadily all the same. 

Atem hated,  _ loathed _ how it easy it was to forget himself and once again become that bratty child he, quite honestly, associated with himself significantly less than he did Yuugi. A boy that thought himself an honest-to-goodness god and in doing so, looked down on the one person who deserved it the least. His brows furrowed into his knuckles.

He was Atem now- Atem, who was almost unbeatable at Duel Monsters and loved his  _ Nakama _ from Domino City, Japan, who loved hamburgers and video games, who had agreed to take notes for Yuugi while he napped in the puzzle during first period one time and ended up combing through Yuugi’s textbooks late into the night, even on the flight to Egypt, reading with a flashlight to the end of  _ A Complete History of World War 2 _ just in case he lost his Duel the next day and he never got the chance to again.

He  _ loved _ being Atem.

But his people loved The Pharaoh. And that  **Hurt** .

Maybe if it had been a century and not three thousand years, it could be different. Maybe he could teach his people of the wonders of the present- of space travel and vaccines, of cellular phones and the Internet, of portable music players and DNA testing and airplanes and Solid Vision, facial reconstructions, animated movies, civil rights movements, cameras and so, so much more…!

But it had been too long. They had been living in ancient Egypt for three thousand years and they had every intention of doing so three thousand years from now. His words were somewhere between frightening and offensive, depending on the listener. Mana and Mahad liked his stories. Kisara was a surprise friend as well, always eager to gossip about the Kaiba brothers and keep him updated on the state of the competitive dueling world (Mahad could have done this as well, but he much preferred this world to the digital one and Atem refrained from ordering him to interrupt his eternal rest just to alleviate his boredom.)

But Kisara would disappear for weeks at a time, Mana could only follow his explanations so far before she got confused, and Mahad had finally admitted to him that, as glad as he was to have Atem back, he enjoyed sleeping far more than pretending to be alive, and true to his word, Atem hadn’t seen much of him after that.

He loved being Atem, but being Atem was lonely. And he’d been lonely for the last three thousand years. Being the Pharaoh was so much more convenient, just for now, just this last century until his friends died and he could be with them again.

That personality felt so foreign and wrong to begin with, It hadn’t occurred to him that he would ever possibly have trouble staying out of it.

But he’d become The Pharaoh right in front of Kaiba, completely on accident. Atem was beyond embarrassed- he was mortified. What would Kaiba think of him now? Now that he’d made so many steps forward, now that he was here, within reach- and now that Kaiba knew there was a part of Atem, albeit a small one, that thought he was an actual god.

This much introspection was dangerous in this world, in his current condition. It was a sensation like a temperamental sliding panel puzzle that had been implanted deep within his heart, his weight shifting just wrong and pulling his whole persona inward again.

_ Dammit.  _

Kaiba would be here any minute. He couldn’t afford to lose himself in his past again, not right now, but the floodgates were so hard to close when they burst open and his thoughts pushed down on his consciousness until he slipped out of his time again, only barely managing to keep himself outside the memories, looking in.

* * *

 

That ugly-hearted boy had paid for his sins. He thought he’d known fear from Set. But staring down Zorc, alone as the sands of the desert bit at his skin, his palace half collapsed, his city burning, his friends dead, his magic exhausted completely and utterly for the first time in his life-  **That** was fear. He’d fallen to his hands and knees and sobbed like a newborn until his stomach emptied its contents onto the sand, his mind running through every spell he knew or had heard of or could imagine- and he could only think of one. A spell to seal all the magic in the known world away, forever. A spell that required three ingredients.

A key.

A sacrifice.

And a life.

He’d started laughing then, the kind of breathless guffaw that occurred only in a panic.

“I don’t… I don’t want to die,” he’d wheezed, then. “I don’t want to die!”

And then he’d heard his name, cutting through the darkness. “Atem.” 

The faintest flicker of hope lit in his heart-

He’d turned and lavender eyes met blue for an instant-

He summoned Dark Magician less than a second before pure white light consumed his entire world, the unbearable heat causing every bit of moisture in the air to turn to boiling steam instantly. His skin cracked, his hair smoked, but then the flames cleared and Mahad stood before him, his savior. And there, behind the dragon...

“Set-!”

“That is not Set. His body has been taken, yet I feel him fighting from within still.”

They’d danced their final dance then- Mahad switching seamlessly between attack and defense as Atem pulled  _ Ba _ from somewhere deep within a crevice in his soul he hadn’t even known existed until the ocean of his power was bone-dry. The white dragon lay waste to entire towns worth of land in a single breath, then turned around and let loose another stream with no more pause than it took her to inhale.

And then that last reserve of power ran out, Mahad flickering out of existence without a word. He threw his arms in front of his face as Kisara’s flames blasted him, straight on. 

His skin boiled, burned, melted. The flesh on one arm blackened and crumbled to dust. Half his vision went completely black. Shock hit his system even before the pain, and with it came a peaceful clarity. The spirit in Set’s body made no move to burn him again, his death assured. The dragon reared back and roared as if in unbearable pain, then dissolved into the night sky, her silver scales flickering like stars. 

He’d touched the Puzzle with his remaining usable hand then, and the world blurred and tilted and all he saw were stars and embers in the sky. Everything began to fade to darkness. The night grew quiet.

And then that horrible scream had cut across his peace like a shattering of glass.

**_“ATEM!!!”_ **

The boy’s face had shifted into view then, tears streaming down his cheeks and leaving stark tan trails on his otherwise dust covered visage. (Set looked so much younger to Atem now... he was only fifteen, then.)

_ I can’t feel it, but he’s holding me. _

He was shouting but to the dying boy they were whispers, almost too faint to understand.

“Don’t leave me, Atem!”

Set’s eyes were the same color as the sky. He’d never noticed before. He was glad this was the last thing he’d see. That he didn’t have to die alone. That Set would be the next Pharaoh.

That he’d gotten to feel his heart race, in the end.

“Don’t you dare leave me all alone!!!”

And then there had been darkness, silence, a maze that never ended and a danger that never left. He didn’t know how he got there, he didn’t know who he was. At first he’d been so sure there was an  _ outside  _ to find, that sight and sound were senses he was missing, but in time he became less sure and eventually he forgot entirely. He never grew tired, but could have still slept in the puzzle, if he’d remembered how to sleep. He slept most of the nights he’d spent in Domino after Duelist Kingdom. But that, too, he’d stripped away from himself, and so he’d been awake… for three thousand years.

* * *

 

Atem had no intention of  _ ever _ disclosing the full story of his death, he thought as he picked up the scattered pieces of his deck absently. It was tragic, horrifying. A story that begged for comfort.

It was exactly what he’d earned- his kind of justice. Atem couldn’t think of a single person he could tell that would understand that. Nobody but Set, perhaps…

His friend Set, who he’d rejected. Disrespected. Mocked. His beautiful Set with skin like sand dunes and eyes like stars and the sea, who had been so desperate to be his equal that he hadn’t even noticed when he’d silently surpassed Atem in every way. His Set, who Atem had never deserved, who had gone back to the world of the living to guide him on his way to the world after…

And fallen right into the hands of Kaiba Gozaburo.

Atem closed his eyes. He did his best to not think about Death-T. 

Atem couldn’t help but think about the punishment game that had caused Death-T. That... haunted him.

He wouldn’t have done that if he’d known Kaiba’s history. He wouldn’t have done it if he’d known he was hurting Set yet again. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he never should have used that particular punishment on anyone for one reason…

In the end, what haunted him the most, what chilled him to his core, was that he was sure, deep in his soul, that even if he’d had all his memories, he wouldn’t have recognized Set that day any more than he had in reality.

He didn’t know what Gozaburo had done to Seto, had no way of finding out more than he did without invading Seto’s heart and trampling over his trust. But whatever he’d done to morph Set into the hideous creature he’d fought three years ago turned out to be…

The Sensation of Death would be fitting. Atem was sure of it.

He would march down to Gozaburo’s little corner of Hell himself and punish him, if Seto ever asked. It was well within his power. And yet Seto would never do that- any punishment would have to be from his hands only, in private. He wouldn’t take “He hurt someone else beloved to me,” as an answer, either. Not until Kaiba Seto’s life flickered out and he was Set again… And depending on the extent of the permanent damage Gozaburo had done to his soul, maybe not even then. 

In a worst-case scenario, he might not _ ever _ be Set again.

Atem frowned as he counted his cards, brushing the debris off as he went. All forty seemed to have not blown more than a few steps away, which was good. And yet... It was an utterly depressing thought that he’d been wrestling to keep down since his memories returned.

What if Kaiba was the one that came to rest when his life ended? He’d have Set’s memories too, of course. Set’s, Christian’s, and the other five or six shorter lives he’d led over the millennia as well. Mana had told Atem he rarely spoke of his other lives after they ended, making an exception for Christian Rosenkreuz simply because he found learning about his previous life in a (highly inaccurate) history textbook extraordinarily funny. He never made a big deal about going back- he just left without a word every few centuries. He always came back. He was always still Set. The biggest changes in personality seemed to be his fashion sense. One time he came back with black hair. The next life, it was back to brown. That was the biggest change Mana could remember. She told him not to worry.

Mahad told him the exact opposite. On the one hand, Set seemed far less influenced by his subsequent lives than most. On the other, the type of damage Gozaburo did to Set’s soul was  _ exactly _ the sort that tended to scar. In addition, Atem shattering his heart should have undone most of the damage, if Set had pieced himself together as his old self. But if he’d reshaped himself as Seto Kaiba… the chances of Kaiba taking over as the dominant personality were very, very high.

“I don’t think he’d do that,” Mahad had told him, shrugging. “But until he comes here there’s really no way to tell.”

That had been a fear that kept Atem up at night. An eternity trapped with Seto Kaiba (who he truly, deeply cared about, but honestly, the man was utterly insufferable more often than not,), his old friend just out of reach until Kaiba willingly repressed himself and let his weaker counterpart take over (which would, of course, never, ever happen.)

Atem had been so afraid of finding out the truth for so long, and this day’s two revelations had come with a soft finality to them. Atem looked at the deep purple dusk, the first few stars beginning to peek out.

Kaiba was definitely the dominant personality. He’d suspected this was the case for a while, but there wasn’t a shred of doubt in his mind of that fact now. 

And he was completely alright with this. That did surprise him. He had assumed he’d be upset. In his memories the two were so distinct;

The loyal-to-a-fault Egyptian boy with the sharp tongue that always got him in trouble, who had reached from the slums and grasped the stars, though all he’d ever wanted was acknowledgement- a dream that had slipped away forever with Atem’s death.

The domineering, acidic CEO with his outrageous outfits and persistent but ever ridiculous dragon motif, who had seen the worst the world had to offer and bent reality to his own will when he found it distasteful, who had fame and fortune and friends and family and still felt empty without acknowledgement from his rival, who had slipped away in the night without saying goodbye.

The closer you looked at Set and Seto, the blurrier the lines separating them became, and today he’d pressed his face in his rival’s chest. He’d seen the sparkling blue eyes he’d been yearning to see for three thousand or maybe just two years, and that was all that mattered.

...with all that said, Atem didn’t think Set would have left him waiting until  _ sundown _ in a show of pettiness. Atem had picked this location because it was directly shaded by the palace in the early evening, but after much longer, that wouldn’t matter…

And as if on cue, Seto came into view from a very not-the-throne-room direction. His shirt was riding up, showing just the slightest bit of his stomach on one side. He looked slightly flushed, the tips of his ears a bright pink. He had a leaf in his hair.

Atem mentally scratched out  _ “Infuriatingly petty” _ and replaced it with  _ “relies too heavily on his GPS,” “too proud to admit it,” _ and _ “Looks cute disheveled.” _ He smirked.

“Did you get lost, Kaiba? I was getting tired of waiting.”

Kaiba cocked his head to the side, the little leaf falling to the ground just outside his field of vision. “This place has incredibly poor navigational optimization. I could suggest some renovations, if you’re interested.”

Atem laughed as he picked up his Duel Disk. “Aside from the two of us, these people have been inhabiting this place for three thousand years. Much as I would like to, if I tried to renovate there’d be a  _ riot _ .”

Kaiba flashed a toothy smile. “Don’t tell me the Great Almighty Pharaoh gets lost in his own palace?”

“Not recently. But the first few months… I’ll say there was an adjustment period and leave it at that.” He strapped his Duel Disk onto his arm and made to load his deck-

He hesitated. “Kaiba. I... need to tell you something.”

“That you’re too scared of losing to rematch me? That this meeting was predestined in the stars- oh, or a friendship speech, those are my favorite.” Kaiba was adjusting his duel disk, not even bothering to look at him.

“I’m serious, Kaiba.”

His silent change in demeanor was instantaneous. He made direct eye contact, unblinking, unwavering, the way he did when he was daring the other party to look away first. Most found his shockingly bright eyes unbearable to look straight into for more than a few seconds, they both knew. Atem held his gaze with ease. He’d sat up all night talking with Set by candlelight, never breaking the connection once, a good portion of his childhood. This wasn’t even a challenge anymore- it was a comfort. 

“You have to promise me… no matter how this duel turns out, you won’t be disappointed.”

Kaiba’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was a time he would have accused Atem of calling him a sore loser, and his mind did jump there first, but he knew that Atem’s words held a different meaning.  His eyes shifted as the two studied each other, for hints at a true meaning, for a reaction. Slowly, carefully, Kaiba crossed his arms defensively as he weighed his next words.

“What… are you trying to tell me? Exactly. Don’t leave any room for misunderstanding.”

Atem’s heart swelled.  _ Kaiba, you’ve grown so much! _

“I’m swearing an oath here, before you and before the gods. I will _ not _ throw this match. I  _ will _ duel you to the best of my ability. When I say I’ve been wanting to duel again every bit as badly as you have, _ I am telling the truth _ .” He took a deep breath. “But Kaiba, I  _ need _ you to understand this;  _ I am very, very out of practice _ . Diva’s attack was the first time I’d dueled since I came to this world, and I haven’t since. If this duel turns out short, or disappointing, you can feel whatever you wish about me, but please, I am  _ begging _ you, don’t take it as a slight against you or your skills.” Kaiba’s face was inscrutable. Atem knew his was pleading.

Kaiba looked somewhere over his right shoulder, his voice quiet. “You’ll do your best, still? You’ll put your everything into this duel?”

“Yes. Absolutely. Kaiba, I’ll have to put in a hundred-and-ten percent if I want to give you any challenge at all the way you are now.”

And then his expression sharpened, narrowed in and set. “You keep that promise. I’ll know if you break it, and I’ll never forgive you.”

And like that the spell was cast, his soul  _ thrummed _ in place of a heartbeat, pure energy rushed through his veins at such a speed his skin seemed to give off a faint golden-red light, a perfect contrast to Kaiba’s mechanical blue glow. In seconds their breath had synced, their stances mirrored, and as one, they shouted; 

**_“Duel!”_ **

In sync, their Disks activated and came to life, Kaiba’s with an artificial  _ whoosh _ , and Atem’s with a very real, very loud mechanical  _ crunch _ .

Kaiba’s reaction was probably the funniest thing Atem had seen in literal  _ years _ .

“It’s not supposed to do  _ that _ !” Kaiba shouted in what was far closer to what a man with a voice as deep and bass as his could come to a squeak than Atem had strictly thought possible. The look Kaiba was giving the offending piece of equipment was just a shade off of abject horror.

“I have  _ never _ heard a Duel Disk make that noise in my _ entire life _ . You should take that off…”

Atem bit his lip and shrugged. “I’m sure it’s fine,” he somehow managed without bursting out giggling at the kaleidoscope of displeased expressions flashing across Kaiba’s face. He was even starting to blush, right across the bridge of his nose like he did when his heart was really pounding during battle. He was seriously getting worked up about this!

“I highly doubt it’s going to catch fire or explode, Kaiba.”

The bridge of his nose wrinkled. “And if it does?”

“You’re over there and I can only die once. You’ll get quite a show, I’m sure.”

Kaiba paled visibly, then darkened to a beet red seconds later.

“You think this is funny!”

Atem grinned. “Guilty as charged.”  _ Mostly. I think you’re funny at the moment. _

He huffed. “Fine! It’s your body, I don’t care what you do with it! Let’s get on with this-”

“I go first.”

Kaiba blinked. “You don’t get to pick that. The game starts with a coin toss.”

“I know. I did.” Atem held up the small holographic disk saying  _ heads _ . “I won. I pick the first turn.”

Kaiba spluttered. “You don’t get to pick after the coin toss! That’s cheating!”

Atem rolled his eyes. “I always pick heads. You always pick tails. I didn’t need to ask.”

“But you can’t just _ do that! _ ”

Atem sighed. “Fine! You pick, Kaiba! First or second?”

“I-.” Kaiba cleared his throat, bringing his voice back down to its normal range from where it kept creeping up. “I want to go second.”

**_“KAIBA.”_ ** Atem scolded, real irritation in his voice. He rubbed his forehead.“Gods grant me patience, this is the most ridiculous man I’ve ever met.”

“At least I don’t cheat,” Kaiba muttered under his breath.

Atem felt a flash of real, indignant anger this time- but it flamed out as soon as it came when he met Kaiba’s sparkling eyes. 

_ He’s joking. _

Atem rose to his full, unimpressive height. “Seto Kaiba, if I ever did cheat, you wouldn’t know until it was far too late to stop me.”

“Oh? And what nefarious plan would I be trying to stop, exactly?” Kaiba’s glowing blue cards appeared in his hand instantly. He smirked at Atem- it could have been for the joke, or a particularly good hand.

“World domination, of course! Where else do you go once you rule one country?” Atem pulled all five of his opening cards with one swipe expertly, their life point counters clicked to 4000 and for a second it felt just like old times-

And then he remembered his little problem. It was all he could do to keep a visible cringe off his face.

“Well, this certainly is… a hand.”

Ra, Osiris, Obelisk, Mystical Elf, and Magic Cylinder.

Not as bad as it could have been. But not good by any stretch of the imagination. He’d bet almost anything Dark Magician was the next card down, with no way to summon him.

“I set a card face down. I set a monster in defense position. I end my turn.”

He let out a deep sigh, meeting his opponent’s eyes apologetically.  _ I’m so sorry, Kaiba. _

Mystical Elf’s 2000 defense would have been impressive when she was newly printed, but now she was little more than a common forgotten by time. Magic Cylinder would deflect one of Kaiba’s attacks back at him- if he only managed to summon one monster and Atem drew something that would allow him to get two more monsters on the field, he could pick any one of his three God Cards and they’d be really going. There were a few things in his deck that could pull it off- three copies of pot of greed being the most likely. 

But if his suspicions were right and Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl had risen to the top of the deck? It was already over.

Kaiba drew and studied the cards in his hand intensely.

“I will start by discarding a card.”

Atem’s eyes widened as he saw the familiar name pop up on his screen. “You discarded Blue Eyes?!”

“I’m sure she won’t mind, considering my reasons. Discarding a card allows me to play Melody of Awakening Dragon- I can now add these two cards from my deck to my hand.”

Blue Eyes Alternative White Dragon and Blue Eyes White Dragon flashed on screen for Atem to see. 

“A fair move- you’ve effectively moved a Blue Eyes to from your deck to your graveyard in exchange for being able to immediately summon Alternate. Still, Kaiba. It seems like a high cost, throwing away one of the three keys in your deck’s strategy.”

“Who said I was throwing her away- or summoning Alternate right now? Certainly not me. I think I’ll play my own cards!” 

Kaiba’s eyes flared with his trademark fire. Atem raised an eyebrow in curiosity- he was dying to see this strategy play out, but that was all the more he was willing to give at the moment.

Kaiba pulled out his next card from his hand- another spell. “This card is Pre-Preparation of Rites. It allows me to add one ritual spell from my deck to my hand- I choose Chaos Form, of course! And what’s more- I can also add a Monster listed on that card from my deck to my hand as well! That would be any Ritual Monster with Chaos in their name, and I choose Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!”

Kaiba threw his head back and laughed- most any other person would have called it maniacal, but Atem knew better. This was a sound of joy. Kaiba was having a blast. (It did sound a bit maniacal, but that was just the way he laughed. Set had sounded exactly the same.)

Kaiba’s mirth subsided and he locked eyes with Atem. “I hoped it would come to this… That I could show you the ultimate form of this deck I poured my heart and soul into! Atem! Watch this!”

If Atem’s heart still beat it would have skipped.

_ Atem. _

_ He’s never called me Atem before. _

_ There was that one time, in Egypt when he fought Diva- he called out to me then, pulled Obelisk from my hand, but not once since he’s been here… _

_ He called me Atem!!! _

All it took was one word! That one word and Atem was as on top of the world, soaring through clouds of euphoria, barely able to breathe for his excitement!

_ “Show me, Seto!” _

“I reveal that I hold Blue Eyes White Dragon in my hand, allowing me to Special Summon her Alternate form!”

Seto’s first dragon roared to life in full spectacular fashion- the splitting image of Kisara herself, save the rainbow colored veins coursing and pulsating over her silver flesh.

“I can only Special Summon one Alternative Dragon per turn in this manner, so I sacrifice the Dragon in my hand to the Graveyard using Chaos Form- Come forth, Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!”

The sky itself seemed to split into a dome then shatter upon itself as Chaos MAX crashed into the field with an incredible roar. She was quite possibly the strongest Monster in Seto’s deck, an unstoppable 4000 attack with 0 defense and the ability to inflict double piercing damage to defense position monsters. The ultimate attacker for the Seto’s ultimate pure power deck. Atem felt himself shiver in anticipation.

“I’m not done yet, Atem! Not even close!” he shouted.

Atem took a full step forward this time, the thrill running though his body was so strong.

“Have you been wondering what those last two cards were? Here they are now- I activate Polymerization, and fuse the Blue Eyes White Dragon from my hand with her Alternate on the field, whose name becomes her normal version on the field or in the graveyard!”

Atem gasped. “Two? Wait, Seto, is this-!?”

“Yes! A  _ brand new _ monster! Reveal yourself, Blue Eyes Twin Burst Dragon!”

The two-headed beast leapt into existence, her heads whipping and snapping at each other viciously.

Seto chuckled, his last card loose in his fingertips. “Beautiful, isn’t she? And yet… Not quite Ultimate…”

Atem saw it in his rival’s eyes- the mischievous glimmer.

“Atem… would you care for a wager?”

“I’m listening.” 

“I’ll bet… you know  _ exactly  _ what this last card is. I’ll bet  _ everything _ on it, in fact.”

Seto turned to him, one hand on Chaos Max’s snout, his other dragon shimmering behind him in a sea of silver and blue.

Their eyes locked, realization dawning on Atem. This one sided Duel Monsters round was over before it had begun- the  _ real game _ was about to begin.

“I’ll give you one chance to guess what this card is. If you guess wrong, I will place my hand on my deck and surrender, right here, right now. Your promise applies here too- no throwing the match for a cheap win, or else. Sound interesting?”

“This is what I live for,” Atem breathed, his grin both feral and wild. He’d realize later what a mistake those words were, but for now there was a  _ Game _ . 

“And what, exactly, am I wagering?” Atem asked.

“If you answer wrong, you'll never see me again, in this world or any other.”

“That’s a big risk for me, Seto. And what else are you offering, to match such a high price?”

“Me.” 

A little bit of the wild danger left Atem’s expression, then. His eyes softened in such a slight way there were only two people alive that would have caught it. Seto was one of them.

A Shadow Game by any other name- the wager was his entire relationship with Kaiba Seto, a price more valuable than life itself, had he one to wager. An unbearable loss. A gain of immeasurable value.

“I accept.”

“Don’t fail, now.”

Seto’s expression was more dangerous than Atem had ever seen it, his feelings clear.

_ Don’t you dare fail me. _

Seto turned to his duel disk. “You have five minutes to review footage of this duel and the card log, starting-”

“No.”

Seto looked up.

“I don’t need five minutes. I already know.”

Seto didn’t like that answer, not at all. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to back out, that he’d made a horrible mistake. If the bet went through, each knew the other would hold to it- hold  _ each other _ to it. They were both too proud, too stubborn to ever be any other way. They were the only ones that had ever really understood what they meant when they said Pride- they were two of a kind, the only two in the world.

Seto’s nerve dwindled second by second, and before his brain knew what his mouth was saying he’d rambled “I never would have offered if I’d known you weren’t going to take me seriously. I’ll give you this one chance to-”

“Seto! Stop. It’s all right. I know.”

Seto’s expression was vulnerable. Terrified. Hopeful. 

Atem’s eyes were as steady as they’d ever been in his three thousand years.

Atem raised a single finger. 

“Kaiba Seto, my friend, I know that card… is Dragon’s Mirror.”

With a mighty flash, Blue Eyes and her two Alternates disappeared from the graveyard as Seto’s ultimate beast rose from the aether- Neo Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon dwarfed her tiny sister Twin Burst. Chaos Max’s terrible rugged beauty seemed to exist only to compliment Neo’s utter radiance, all rippling muscle and shimmering silver in every elegant curve- every animation, no matter how slight, exuding indomitable power and complete control.

The three dragons were a marvelous sight to behold- Atem was only vaguely aware of the crowd that had gathered outside the courtyard’s walls, though. Only vaguely aware of the dragons themselves, too. Atem saw only one thing- Seto, his face almost completely slack, only the vaguest hint of curiosity on his face, as the tears came unbidden, unnoticed, down Seto’s cheeks and dripping from his chin with no sign of stopping. 

It was only a minute at most that they stood there, before Seto scrubbed at his face with his sleeve and declared “It’s still my turn,” the only sign left of the moment the slightest bit of red around his eyes.

It almost felt like an insult to let Seto win this farce of a game, Atem thought, after that incredible combo with his shining dragons as Atem sat here with his defense position elf. Even his little trap couldn’t save him- Chaos Max was immune to all card effects besides her own, and that included traps. All he had to do was attack Mystical Elf and the flat 4000 damage would end him instantly. 

_ From the king of games to destroyed in a single turn. _

And yet, Seto hesitated. He didn’t think it could possibly be as easy as Atem knew it was.

After what seemed an eternity, he barked a command; “Twin Burst, destroy that defense position monster! She cannot be destroyed by battle and any monster that survives is banish-”

“There’s no need,” Atem said quietly. Mystical Elf’s form appeared to play her defeated animation before she dissolved. 

Seto gaped. “Why was that even in your deck?”

“She has decent defense for a four star monster.”

“But… there are so many better options for summoning fodder…”

Atem shrugged, his eyes closed. “I only have the forty cards I came here with. I don’t have a way of accessing any others. This was a good deck, two years ago. The entire game has changed since KaibaCorp bought I2- Syncros, Xyz, Pendulums, Links, the shift to Link Format, the introduction of Speed Format… I don’t know if I’ll ever move on from Duel Monsters, but Duel Monsters has certainly moved on from me.”

He opened his eyes- Seto looked mostly confused and mildly frustrated. 

“Where in the world did you learn about all that? And… And you knew Alternate’s ability even though not a single one was printed before you came here!”

Atem smirked. “I have a source. She’s a bit of a fanatic for the “Blue Eyes” and “With Eyes of Blue” series.”

Seto raised an eyebrow. “I think I’d like to meet this source of yours.”

Atem let out a short, barking laugh. “Oh, I bet you would.”

Chaos MAX nudged Seto hard enough to break the distraction. Seto shook his head. 

“That’s really all you could muster? At your best?”

“I got a bad hand, Seto. I really am sorry.” Atem smiled. “Your dueling is more spectacular than ever. I feel honored to be the first to see that combo.”

“Thank you, Atem.” Seto returned his smile, the slightest hint of pink on his cheeks.” I should end this.”

Atem nodded.

Seto Kaiba leveled one finger at his rival’s heart, like a pistol. “Direct attack him…”

Atem looked at Chaos MAX.

“Neo!”

Neo Ultimate’s 4500 attack blast slammed into Atem’s unprotected field.

And then came right back and slammed into Seto. The shockwave blew Seto all the way off his feet, onto his back. His three dragons vanished, replaced by a score board.

Seto Kaiba vs. Atem

RESULTS

Seto Kaiba: LP 0

Atem LP: 4000

Turns: 1

Victor: Atem

~CONGRATULATIONS~

 

Seto made no move to stand up. Atem walked over to him and sat down.

“That was an amateur mistake if I’ve ever seen one. Did you forget the trap was there?”

Seto stared at the night sky. “I thought it was mirror force. And then, when Twin Burst attacked and you didn’t use it, and you said how bad your hand was… I thought you were bluffing with a spell card.”

That was when Atem noticed Seto trembling, his lips twitching, and for five terrible seconds Atem feared Seto was going to burst into tears at his narrowest loss yet-

And then Atem realized he was laughing. It started as repressed giggles, then a full exclamation, then Seto finally sat, shaking, tears forming around his long, black lashes.

The sheer absurdity of the situation washed over Atem too- He’d just played the worst game of his life against one of the two best Duel Monsters players alive and  _ won _ . Atem laughed too, then.

“Y-you're amazing, Atem!” Seto managed between heaving breaths. “You’re completely unbeatable! All this time, I watched you get better and better with each stronger opponent, always just a little too good, ever out of reach... “

Seto coughed in between laughs. “It never occurred to me that it went both ways! That if you started playing badly, my skills would decrease the appropriate amount…” He coughed again, cleared his throat, and dissolved into an uncontrollable hacking fit.

Atem was at his side in seconds, his hand already on Seto’s back before he remembered that he shouldn’t touch Seto without permission. 

He didn’t seem to be choking, at least, but Atem wasn’t expecting Seto to be soaking wet. His sweat had soaked all the way through his turtleneck into his coat, so much so that his hand came back slick from even that slight touch.

“When was the last time you had anything to drink?” Atem asked, alarmed. 

“Before… here…” he wheezed.

Atem gaped for a second at this man's apparent complete lack of survival skills, but the instant he jumped to his feet Seto grabbed his wrist.

“No… water...”

Surely Seto wasn’t being obstinate for no reason. “Why?”

“Not… safe-!” Seto released Atem’s wrist to get in a more comfortable position to breathe in.

Atem’s eyes widened as he realized what Seto was worried about.

Unfiltered water from a river was fine for the dead. But Seto was still alive, and supposedly wanted it to stay that way. 

“I’ll be right back!” he shouted, running for the kitchens. He crashed and collided with staff no less than three times on his way there and back with a skin of wine. Seto was startlingly quiet when he approached. A spike of fear ran through him, but Seto looked up and took the offered skin, drinking as if he was dying of dehydration.

Which he probably _ was _ at this point. Atem stared at the tiny droplets escaping Seto’s mouth and running down his chin with a bit more intensity than he’d care to admit.

Seto finished draining his wine and took a deep breath, in and out. “I’ll need to be more careful if I want to avoid dehydration while I’m here. Alcohol is probably safe to drink, but won’t help much with the water issue- do you have some kind of fresh fruit here?”

Atem nodded. “Pomegranates, dates, figs, melons, plums- but wouldn’t milk be a better choice?

“Unfortunately, I’m intolerant. I’ll have to deal with fruit and wine while I’m here.”

“We have a sort of beer as well- it’s made from barley. It’s quite good!”

Seto wrinkled his nose. “ _ Beer _ .” He shook his head. “I definitely should have brought some bottled water. At least it’s cooling off now.”

The sky was almost completely dark now, only the faintest traces of red showing above the western wall. The palace attendants had already finished lighting most the torches, save for their current location. “It’ll be cold before long. We should head inside for the night.”

Atem held out his hand to help Seto stand, fully expecting the taller man to reject his offer. But Seto took his hand, stood, and then seconds ticked by,  _ one, two, three, _ and Seto made no move to let go of Atem’s hand.

Atem felt heat flush across his cheeks and prickle down the back of his neck, remembering Seto’s wager.  _ Me. _ Smoothly, he adjusted his grip and pulled Seto forward, hand-in-hand. Atem wondered if Seto was half as flustered as he was by the contact, if his face was flushed and his heart was racing, but there was no way he could meet Seto’s piercing gaze at the moment without embarrassing himself in any number of ways, and kept his eyes locked on his destination. 

Atem didn’t realize until after they’d already arrived that he’d brought them both to  _ his _ bedroom. It would have made far more sense to take Seto to the High Priest’s quarters for the night- but that was completely on the other side of the palace, and Atem knew Seto’s sense of direction wasn't so poor that they’d be able to change destination without him noticing.

_ Set was Pharaoh as well. This is his room as much as mine- It shouldn’t be too big of a deal if I lend it to him for the night. _

Seto released Atem’s hand as they entered. “Is this your room?”

“This is the Pharaoh’s residence- it was my father’s before mine, and my High Priest’s after he succeeded me.”

“My, my, Atem. I know you missed me, but isn’t this a bit forward? At least seduce me a bit first.”

_ Unless he makes a big deal out of it! _

Atem felt electric pins and needles of embarrassment rush throughout his body, his eyes unable to rise from the rug.

_ Is he joking? He must be. There’s  _ **_no way_ ** _ he’s serious. _

And yet, Seto’s deep  _ “Me” _ echoed in his mind and Atem’s palm tingled from where the warm pressure of Seto’s skin had met his own mere seconds earlier. 

He managed to look up when Seto’s laugh washed across the room. He was lounging at Atem’s desk, feet propped up on a chest of his clothes.

“Don’t tell me you’re _ actually embarrassed _ at a little dirty joke. You have a whole gaggle of swooning wives at your dick’s beck and call, don’t you?”

“No, not at all. I had a betrothed of sorts, but I died before we… Uhm… So I’ve never... actually…”

_ Why am I still talking? I should stop talking. _

“Is that so? I never would have you pegged for a blushing virgin. Heh…”

Atem seemed to shrink under his rival’s words. Seto somehow seemed completely at ease, despite the taboo subject matter.

“Then again, I’ve never exactly had a ‘romantic encounter’ with another person myself, no matter how much of a playboy the tabloids make me out to be. I suppose I don’t have any room to judge.”

A bit of the weight lifted from Atem’s shoulders. “You’re a virgin too?”

Seto looked at Atem with an inscrutable expression, something dark and heavy hidden behind his lashes. Atem hadn’t realized it was a loaded question when he’d asked it and wasn’t exactly sure why it had triggered this reaction, but it had clearly been the wrong thing to say.

Seto took his boots off the wooden chest and sat properly at the desk, his back to Atem. 

“Bring me that Duel Disk. I need to see what's wrong with it.”

Atem placed his Disk on the desk as Seto slipped his off and sat it to his right. With a practiced ease he activated it and summoned the required holographic tools into his hands. Atem sat crossed legged on his bed, the world outside this room seeming to fall away as he watched Seto’s face in profile. Seto’s stress seemed to melt away, worry lines disappearing as metal quickly and gently slipped between his fingers. Atem had never seen this expression on his rival’s face before- not quite as gentle as the one he wore around Mokuba, not nearly as happy as the one he boasted during their duels, but there was an element of both remaining.

_ It’s peaceful. _

Seto worked with his creation as easily as breathing air. Atem found it every bit as impressive as his own mastery of magic, perhaps even more so. Atem had built his repertoire of spells from generations of magicians before him, the major difference in his case being the Puzzle’s ability to boost his  _ Ba _ to inhuman amounts- Seto had built his technological empire from the ground up in only a handful of years. He hadn’t even thought of Solid Vision until he was sixteen, and only three years later it was likely the highest demand technology on the market, its original use in entertainment far overshadowed by its current use in the medical and education fields.

Seto hadn’t just single-handedly stopped Kaiba Corporation from killing people- now, it saved hundreds of lives every day. He’d done so by turning a twisted, confused spirit’s poorly considered attack into a force for good. The change was beautiful.

Seto was beautiful.

Atem was enthralled as Seto rose from his spot at the desk and walked over to the bed, inches from him. Each looked deeply into the other’s eyes…

And Seto dropped a handful of sand right on Atem’s head. Atem jumped back and yelped.

“Perhaps I should add a new warning to the box- “Do not freeze, do not place in temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius,  _ do not bury in sand! _ ” He huffed. “How did you even  _ do that? _ ”

“Believe me, you’ll find sand in stranger places than inside electronics here. Just wait until you take off those pant-boots of yours,” Atem smirked. “By the way, do you want to change into some less ridiculous clothes?”

Seto crossed his arms. “My clothes are ridiculous, says the man in a miniskirt and _ cape _ . I don’t think you’re in any position to be questioning my fashion choices.”

Atem rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. Leather pants, a leather coat, and a polyester shirt wouldn’t be my first choice for the desert- especially since you’ve been wearing them all day. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you're a bit… fragrant.”

Seto frowned. “You’re not wrong, but… I’m not sure I’m cut out for anything as  _ revealing _ as your people wear.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have one of my attendants take you to my High Priest’s room- anything in there should fit you fine, and you’ll have as long as you need to look through his clothes and find something you’re comfortable in.” Atem hopped off the bed.

“And what is this priest of yours going to think of me staying in his room and digging through his things?”

“He’s…” Atem stopped, eyes on the floor.. “He reincarnated into the world of the living before I came here. Gods be willing, he won’t die for another seventy years or so.”

“You said he succeeded you after your death. Were you close in age, then?”

“Yes. He was just a few months younger than myself.”

“Was he your friend?”

Atem tried to read Seto’s expression and failed. He seemed simply curious, but there was just the slightest edge in his voice.

_ He’s probably trying to piece together what he knows from Battle City with what I’m telling him now. _

Atem smiled. “Aside from my sister Mana, he was my best friend.”

“You came all the way here to reunite with your lost people and your best friend won’t even be here for almost a century. Seems like a particularly cruel joke on the universe's part from where I stand.”

Seto’s tone didn’t have an ounce of pity in it. It was harsh.

“Someone must have made a mistake along the way, hm?”

Atem’s stomach knotted as Seto’s meaning dawned on him. He ducked under the curtain on his doorway and walked down the hall to get his guard without a word or backwards glance.

Seto thought Atem belonged in the world of the living still.

He was clearly wrong- this was where Atem’s path led, where his road ended. Here, with his family, with his friends, with his sword stripped away. At peace, forever. 

_ This is where I belong. _

He had one advantage in convincing Seto of the truth of the matter- his speech was well rehearsed.

He’d lost count of how many times he’d had to repeat it to himself over the last two years, after all.

* * *

 

Kaiba had a sneaking suspicion he knew who this “High Priest” fellow was. Or who Atem thought he was, at least.

He couldn't remove as much of his clothing as he would really like to- the reason it was so heavy and unwieldy was due to the technology sewn into it to protect him from this dimension's corrosive atmosphere. Taking off pretty much any part of his outfit would shorten his ability to stay here exponentially.

On the other hand, if he didn’t get out of these clothes soon, the discomfort was going to outweigh the benefits of staying very, very quickly. 

The girl that had led him to his room came back soon after with a basin of water and towel in one arm and a bowl of fruit in the other. She sat them down on his desk.

“Is there anything else you require, Lord Set?”

Kaiba shook his head distractedly as he dug through the priest’s clothing chest. Didn’t he have  _ anything _ with sleeves? “No, that’s all. See to it that I’m not disturbed by anyone but Atem.”

She bowed. “Yes, my lord. It’s so good to have you back!”

Kaiba started as she dashed out of the room.

She thought he  _ was  _ the High Priest. And…

And he’d responded to his name. That wasn’t going to help the issue. It was an understandable mistake- Seto was an alternate pronunciation of the name Set, and he’d been distracted. He was only human. He made mistakes sometimes.

He didn’t usually forget his own name, admittedly. The existence of “Souls” of sorts- the theory that the electrical essences that caused the human body to function continued to exist after the body’s death, and that there was a secondary dimension that could only be accessed in this from of pure electrical energy- well, it went well into the realm of theoretical physics, but it was a theory worth testing.

But widening his worldview to include his current setting was just about as far as he was currently willing to push his understanding of reality. Reincarnation was a good distance beyond that.

Atem thought this Priest Set was his former incarnation- between what he’d said during this visit and what had happened in Battle City, that much was clear. And it was the one thing Kaiba was absolutely unwilling to even consider in the whole Ancient Egypt matter.

He’d thought when he arrived here, he’d get to meet this priest in person and prove to Atem once and for all that they were separate entities.

He hadn’t expected the priest to have been missing for almost twenty years. 

Or for his name to be Set.

And definitely not for Set’s clothes to be exactly his size.

Kaiba had a headache.

His patience with the day was all but evaporated. Kaiba double checked the curtain on the door and stripped down to nude- save his headgear- and grabbed the towel. He grimaced as he washed his arms- his hands were a caramel brown shade from the wrist down, save his distinctly pale palms. He imagined his face was in similar shape.

_ Dammit. My stylist is going to throw a fit when she sees this. _

Atem’s foreboding promise of sand in cruel and unusual places had come true, too. There was a small, gritty pile sitting in the bottom of the water basin by the time he was satisfactorily clean.

The purple particles were streaming off of him in such massive waves that he could feel a slight tingle where they were the worst- he’d probably lost a few hours of time in just the few minutes he’d taken to get clean, but it was worth it. Damp and shivering slightly from the night’s chill, he grabbed his coat. He shook it and brushed it off as best he could before crawling under the bedcovers and tossing his coat over himself, the tingling feeling stopping almost instantaneously. The bed was far more firm than he was used to at home, but the sheets were silk and felt wonderful on his bare skin. Sleep, which always avoided him for at least an hour and sometimes for two or three days at a time, claimed him within minutes.

* * *

 

Kaiba opened his eyes only to pinch them shut again as he accidentally found the sun in the open window. He buried his face in the sheets.

“Computer. What time is it?”

“9:17,” responded the mechanical voice from his duel disk. Kaiba sat up. He’d overslept, badly. He wondered why Atem hadn’t summoned him yet as he rubbed sand from his eyes. 

_ I do hope it’s not real sand. In this place, there’s no telling. _

“How long did I sleep?”

“Eleven hours, twelve minutes.”

He blinked blearily at his Duel Disk. He got a full eight hours of sleep once, maybe twice a month. He  _ never _ slept that long. No wonder he felt so uncharacteristically groggy.

Still half asleep, he shuffled to the chest of clothing and grabbed some underwear, a long off-white cotton tunic and finally dug a loose, gold-and-purple silk jacket that draped down to his waist from the bottom of the chest. He’d put it on the bottom because didn’t wear it often, but he didn’t normally have to hide the marks on his arms, either.

Kaiba’s zombie-like stupor continued until he stabbed himself with an earring. He glared sleepily down at the offending piece of gold.

_ Oh. I forgot. My ears aren’t pierced. What an inconvenient body. _

**_Wait._ **

Kaiba jerked back from the earring as if it had bitten him, his eyes wide. He grit his teeth.

“It is too  _ fucking _ early in the morning for more occult bullshit.”

He angrily picked the earring up off the floor and slammed it down next to the water basin, the golden necklace and rings he’d picked out in his trance joining it seconds later. He swung his coat over his shoulders and tugged it into place, grabbed his Duel Disk and left the bedroom, which had gone from familiar and cozy to stifling in an instant.

* * *

 

The desert heat didn’t seem half so unbearable in cotton and silk as it had in leather and polyester. True, changing his shirt and pants had lessened the effectiveness of his tech a bit, but the majority was contained in his coat and Duel Disk, with the parts he’d lost being mostly comprised of boosters and stabilizers. The added comfort was a more than adequate trade off. He’d told the servant girl to wash his clothing while he was out today, so he'd be able to change back as soon as the temperature cooled off this evening, when he…

When he headed home.

He sliced off another piece of melon and popped it in his mouth. The bench he’d found to have breakfast on was in a shady spot just under the outer wall, and a nice breeze was ruffling his clothing. This dimension was primitive to be sure, but it had a serene beauty to it that Earth had lost along the way. He was going to miss it when he went home. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

_ I’ve only been here for less than a day. Maybe I should lay off the wine… _

He regretted the pomegranate more than the wine. He hadn’t realized what a beast it would be to eat when he’d opened it, and trying to avoid getting the sticky red juice on his white coat was an ordeal all by itself. By the time he was done, the sun was high in the sky, the tips of his fingers had gone from brown to purple and Atem still hadn’t called for him. He scowled.

“Is something wrong?”

Kaiba looked up, and his heart continued upwards into his throat.

She was a petite woman, perhaps half a head taller than Atem. Her hair was a shade beyond platinum- such a pale yellow bordering on white that when the sun hit it, it seemed to shine a brilliant silver. He could really only describe her face as pretty- it wasn’t a girly sort of cute like Mazaki or Miho, and even farther from a feminine bombshell like Kujaku. Her face reminded him of an elf goddess from an RPG he’d played once. If her eyes had been any different, the fact that her arms and legs were pure, rippling muscle would have been off putting. But however tough her body looked, however pretty her face, her eyes were ten times fiercer and gorgeous beyond compare- blue diamonds that could put any million dollar gemstone to shame.

And there was something _ unbearably _ familiar about her.

She giggled. “Hello?”

He struggled to find his voice. “Hi,” he said stupidly.

“Staring is rude, you know? Even if you have eyes as pretty as yours.”

Kaiba’s felt a blush redden his cheeks. “I’m- your eyes are more. Way prettier. Than mine, I mean. Gorgeous, even.”

She smiled. “My eyes are?”

“All of you. I’m sorry, I know I sound like an idiot but you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and my words are broken,” he rambled at the speed of light.

“Oh, you’re so cute! I think I might like you even better.”

Kaiba was aware his brain was running at about 2% efficiency, but he was fairly certain that she hadn’t mentioned the person she liked him better than. Probably. 

“Better than who?”

“My Pharaoh.”

“You know Atem well?”

She shook her head. “Atem and I are friends. But I speak of Set.”

Kaiba swallowed, trying to regain his composure. “I’ve heard people around the palace say we’re similar. I’m very curious what makes me  _ better  _ than him, to be honest.”

“Set loves me. He desires my body, worships my voice. But he hates my eyes. He looks into them and sees fire and death, and it scares him. He’s the sort of man to take precautions before he plays with fire- but you…”

She bent over, giving him an astonishingly good view for a split second before she placed one finger under his chin and forced him to meet her eyes. “You’re the type of man that declares ‘I’m the flame’s king, it cannot harm me’ and jumps in with both feet, right?”

He was trembling. “Yeah.”

“I love that. It’s a little sexy.”

Kaiba gulped. “Your eyes don’t frighten me at all. If I lived in this world I’d look into them for a thousand years and it wouldn’t be enough. Set may be a pharaoh, but he’s obviously a fool.”

“Seto, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” he whispered.

She drew closer to him now, his eyelashes almost bruising hers, her breath steaming hot on his face.

“If you like my eyes so much… why do you keep trying to look down?”

“Your eyes are your best feature. They're a close second.”

She leapt back, howling with laughter. It was halfway between musical and maniacal, and incredibly alluring.

“I can’t believe this tragedy,” Kaiba sighed.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I’ve met the woman of my dreams and she’s dead. I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’re only a visitor here like me?”

She shook her head with a sad smile. “Set’s father murdered me three thousand years ago, here in Egypt. I was younger then than you are now.”

“And a bit of the light left the world that day. You have no idea what I’d give to go back and have you in my life.”

She laughed again. “You don’t have to give anything! I’ve always been by your side.”

He blinked. “You... have?”

“I have. Always. When you cried to fly away from that ugly home, I was your wings. When that man hurt your body, I ripped him limb from limb and burned him to ash in his dreams by your command. When the darkness enveloped your heart, I buried myself deep in your soul and protected the real you, wrapped your tiny, fragile form in my wings and shone my light on your sleeping face while I prayed for the day you’d wake. I was always at your side, even…” 

And then fast as lightning, her fingers wrapped around his neck, crushing the air from his throat, nails digging into his skin...! And then she pulled back,  _ ripped, tore, _ his flesh rendered fragile as paper under her strength, as she pulled his windpipe from his body in a splatter of gore-!

**_Even when_ **

**_You_ **

**_HURT_ **

**_ME_ **

* * *

 

Kaiba fell to his knees, trembling and gasping for air. His grasped at his throat in horror- but there was no wound, and no woman. He sat back on his heels and took a steadying breath. He’d dozed off while he was eating. He’d almost dared to hope the otherworldly peace of this place would be enough to quell his relentless nightmares after last night, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The sun was high in the sky now, his shade gone. He stood and asked a passing soldier where Atem was, and instantly felt irritated with the answer. He decided to take the matter into his own hands.

He sipped his wine as he made his way back to the pharaoh’s room. Two guards stood outside. The one to the left he remembered from the throne room yesterday, but the one on the right was a fresh face. One looked significantly more pleased to see him than the other.

“Halt! The pharaoh is not to be disturbed, ” Left said, taking a threatening step forward.

Right gaped. “You can’t do that,” he hissed at his companion.

“He’s the troublemaker from yesterday,” Left responded. “I won’t let him near my Pharaoh unless he orders me to do so, and he’s not here right now.”

“Let him!?! You idiot, do you not realize who he is?”

Kaiba took a step forward forcing as much vitriol into his glare as he could manage. “If Atem is pharaoh, what does that make me? You  _ do  _ know who I am... don’t you?”

Left looked confused at Right’s words but visibly paled when Kaiba spoke. His mouth opened and closed like a fish twice before he found his words.

“I… You… Your majesty!” He fell to his knees. “I beg your forgiveness!”

“I’ll consider it. Now begone, both of you. You’re an eyesore.”

Kaiba couldn’t help but laugh quietly as the two tripped over each other in their rush to flee. He didn’t believe for an instant that he was Pharaoh Set, but he wasn’t the sort to throw away an advantage when one was passed his way. He ducked into Atem’s room.

He frowned at the sight that greeted him. Atem lay sprawled in his bed, tangled in his blanket. His sheet covered enough that Kaiba couldn’t tell if he was completely nude or not, but showed enough that he obviously wasn’t wearing very much. Kaiba approached without any particular care to be quiet, but the younger man was... well, dead asleep.

He stood just on the other side of the footboard of Atem’s bed, and took another sip of wine. He reached up to his headgear and pressed a button, an artificial  _ snap! _ playing in his ear as he took a picture, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. He leaned over the edge of the bed and took a deep breath.

_ “Up at the crack of noon, I see!!!” _

Atem jumped a good three inches off the bed, hopelessly tangling himself in his blanket and finally scrambling backward off the bed onto the floor with an audible  _ thud _ . He looked up at Kaiba with terrified eyes, panting. Kaiba threw his head back, laughing.

“You asshole!”

Kaiba managed to stop himself for long enough to take in the scene- Atem, clad only a very small pair of white underwear, arms crossed with an  _ absolutely adorable _ pout on his face.

And then the laughing was back tenfold. He made his way to the edge of the bed and sat down, tears running down his face and wheezing. It wasn’t _ that _ funny, but he  _ was _ that drunk.

Atem sighed and pulled a clean tunic over his head, slipping his feet into a pair of sandals soon after. He looked completely disheveled, but Kaiba was able to get the giggling under control once Atem was less nude.

His hair was a masterpiece in wild- it seemed freshly washed, all the vivid color but the bleached blond replaced with solid black. Large chunks had come out of his signature updo and frizzed into a semi afro-like state.

_ Oh, I would hate to have to model that. Forget the physics, just getting the shape right would be a nightmare. _

“So, Kaiba, is the oh-so-important reason you decided to wake me up that you needed a good laugh?”

“I’m only going to be here a few more hours. I came here to see you, so I’d rather not spend them alone.”

“You're mumbling worse than usual, Kaiba. I can barely understand you. Did you say you’re leaving in a few _ hours _ ?”

“I did.”

Atem looked stricken. “I thought you said you were staying for several days.”

“I said- ahem.” Kaiba really was mumbling. He tried to even his voice out a bit. “I said I thought my equipment could keep me here safely for three or four days, but the closer I come to that deadline before I go back, the more dangerous it becomes. I’d rather not push it further than necessary. I’ll be heading back to into the desert as soon as it starts to cool off this evening.”

“I… see. I’ll miss you.” Atem was looking at the floor, hands fisted at his sides. “How long will it be before you come back, do you think?”

“Not for a good, long time, hopefully.” 

Atem looked up at that, his eyes glassy. Kaiba’s heart sank.

“This was a one time deal, Atem. The amount of stress coming here places on my body is extreme- I’m young and in good shape, so I shouldn’t have too many lasting effects from this when I get back after a few rounds of physical therapy. But if I came here again… that’s when we get into areas like a possible stroke or heart attack. I’m not willing to risk it.”

“No. You shouldn’t be.” Atem sat down on the couch across from him heavily. “You have... your whole life ahead of you. And… and I…” He fisted his fingers into the material of his hem, swiping a hand across his eyes as his breathing hitched.

Kaiba jumped to his feet. _ “Oh, shut up!” _ he bellowed. The whole world seemed to swim before his eyes. He was far too drunk to have a serious conversation, but his time here was quickly running out.

He didn’t intend to let Atem waste his time by throwing himself an undeserved pity party.

“Don’t you dare pretend you’re heartbroken to have me gone! You always used me when you wanted and threw me away when you pleased, why should I treat you any differently?”

“I- _ threw you away?  _ When have I ever treated you with anything but complete respect after you earned it?”

“Respect? I don’t know how it works for  _ living gods, _ ” he spat, “but in my world, you don’t lie to those you use that word for!”

Atem rose to his feet, furious. “When have I **ever** lied to you?”

“‘When have you ever said a genuine word to me’ would be a better question! Gozaburo was a horrid, evil man, but his lessons are burned into my skin- his final one most of all.” Kaiba’s voice grew quieter with every word, from a shout to barely above a whisper. “Do you remember it, Atem?”

“ _ ‘To lose is to die,’ _ ” Atem answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“‘To lose is to die.’ That’s what he told me. And you told me he was wrong. You fought me at every step, rose to my every challenge, overcame my every obstacle. You said my hatred wasn’t the strength I thought it was, but the last shackle holding me back from my true potential. You told me that I didn’t have to punish myself for my losses- that instead, I could learn from them and come back stronger than before. You said all that… and I believed you.”

Kaiba wanted to meet Atem’s eyes for his next words, wanted to shout them loud enough for the world to hear, but his sight blurred with tears and his voice broke. “And then when you lost you laid down and died like the  _ fucking hypocrite _ you are.”

“It’s not the same!” Atem shouted, desperation lining his voice. “I never belonged in that world- Yuugi deserved to have his body back, and gods damn it all, I deserve more than to live as a parasite! Do you honestly think I would have been happy there?!”

“You aren’t happy here either!” Kaiba retorted. 

Atem opened his mouth, then shut it with a grimace. They both knew it was true. “I didn’t die when I lost, Kaiba. I’ve been dead for three thousand years.”

“If you’re so thoroughly convinced you’re dead, then why did you say dueling me is what you  _ live _ for?”

“I- it was a just a phrase. A slip of the tongue. My heart doesn’t beat anymore, Kaiba. My body burned to death- I remember dying.”

“But you  _ meant it _ . Maybe your heart doesn’t beat anymore, but there’s a spark of life left inside you. You don’t belong here. You  _ know _ you don’t.”

“I know that! I know! But I couldn’t stay, don’t you get that!?”

“But you didn’t have to leave without me.” Kaiba’s eyes blurred again, and this time he couldn’t blink back all his tears before they fell. “Everyone else was there to see you off. Everyone but me. You didn’t even bother to tell me you were leaving.”

“I…! I didn’t…! I didn’t bother to tell you because I didn’t think I was going to lose!” 

Atem collapsed into the couch, face buried in his hands and tears streaming through his fingers uncontrollably. “I didn’t want to come here! I never wanted to come here!  _ I want to go home!!! _ ”

His screams dissolved into heaving sobs, his whole body shuddering as he rocked back and forth.

Kaiba’s righteous fire died out like a candle in Atem’s tears. His shoulders relaxed as he wiped his eyes. He walked forward, only a few steps with his long legs, and kneeled in front of his friend.

“Atem.”

Atem was inconsolable, hands fisted in his bangs and unresponsive. 

Kaiba reached forward, placing his right hand on Atem’s cheek. “Atem, look at me.”

Atem looked up then, his hands slowly lowering into his lap. Kaiba wiped the tears from Atem’s cheek with his thumb. His eyes shimmered all passionate reds and kind, familiar blues, the sunlight streaming in from outside sparkling in their reflection.

“When I go home tonight, do you want to come with me?”

“ _ More than anything. _ ” Atem swallowed. “But… is that even possible?”

“I don’t know. You might dissolve on the other side. You might just fail to leave this place with me. There’s a thousand other ways this could go wrong. But… you might also make it back to my world, in this body. I don’t know how this will end, but I do know that if you don’t come with me now, we’ll never have this chance again.” He took his hand from Atem’s face, wrapping both of Atem’s hands in his own, his long, lithe fingers covering the smaller man’s completely. “Will you come with me?”

Atem couldn’t find his words. Instead, he just smiled and gave a firm nod.

Kaiba stood. “Good. Pack a bag. Try to keep it under ten kilos. I’ll meet you at the city gate at sundown.” And with that, he swept out of the room.

* * *

 

Kaiba should have brought some drinking water. And a pair of sunglasses. He wasn’t looking forward to this trek through the desert- it may be cooler this time, but he’d be walking right into the sun.

Or maybe  _ they _ would.

He didn’t realize who the hooded boy was until he was barely five feet away. “You actually came,” he said, genuine surprise in his voice.

Atem’s hair was completely undone, loose black and gold curls hanging down into his eyes under his linen hood. “I told you I would.”

“Are you sure about this? Even if you get to the other side safely- which I am in no way guaranteeing- there’s no telling where you’ll go when your body dies. You may never see this place again.”

“I’ve said my goodbyes. Mahad said he’s not worried about me gambling my life because I never lose a bet. Mana said something to the same effect, and added that she’ll miss me but she just wants me to be happy again… From the way they talk, you’d think I was going to a casino instead of the world of the living!” He huffed, a strand of hair fluttering in his breath. “And my parents… it wasn’t the worst fight we’ve gotten in since I got here. I think we ended things in a way I won’t regret.” 

“Are you ready to go, then?” 

“ _ I _ am.  _ We _ aren’t.” Atem grinned. “I got us a ride.”

Kaiba grimaced. “Horses or camels?”

“Neither.”

“Oh no. Something worse? Tell me it’s not  _ cows _ .”

“Do you remember that source I told you about yesterday?”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “The Blue Eyes fan?”

Atem laughed. “Yes, she… Wait. I just realized something. Yesterday, during our duel- you were using female pronouns for Blue Eyes instead of neutral ones. You’ve never done that before.”

Kaiba frowned. Atem was right. “It felt right at the time. I don’t know why.” He stretched his arms. “When is this mysterious friend of yours getting here with our ride?”

“She’s already here.”

“What? Where?”

Atem pointed right behind him. Kaiba whirled-

And froze in stunned silence. It was the blonde woman. She grinned, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

“ _ Blue Eyes. _ I love it when you call me that. Set never gave me a pet name like that, not in all these long years.”

Atem sighed. “Kisara, do you know how confusing that statement must be for him? Why don’t you show him your true form first?”

“You underestimate him, Atem. His heart and mine are one- he already knows who I am.”

_ Do I? I remember her now- she’s the girl I saw when I tried to transcend dimensions for the first time. My heart is screaming the answer at me, but does my mind believe it? _

She smiled at him then, shockingly white fangs glittering in the sunlight. Silver wings erupted from her back, her tail whipping as her nails extended to talons and her milky white flesh hardened into scales. 

And then she stood before him in her full glory- his Blue Eyes threw her head back and  **ROARED!**

_ Unbelievable..! My renditions in Solid Vision seem  _ **_insulting_ ** _ in comparison to the real thing. _

She lowered her head then, looking Kaiba dead on in the eyes. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No,” he said quietly. “Your name is Kisara?”

“That is what I was called in life, but that name feels no less true than any you would care to give me. I can be Kisara, or I can be Blue Eyes. Call me what you will.”

“Kisara…” He lifted a hand to pet her, just as he did with his holograms, but stopped short. “I’m so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

“Seto, our hearts are one. The pain I feel is yours.” She pressed her snout into his hand, then pressed harder, nuzzling her face into his shirt. “ We are partners. We are equals. There is nothing to forgive.”

He closed his eyes and dug his fingertips into her warm, dry scales, breathing in her scent, etching her every detail into his memory. The intimate moment only lasted a few seconds before they both pulled away from the other in perfect sync.

Kisara bowed to all fours. “Climb on.”

Atem made to mount the dragon before he realized Kaiba hadn’t actually moved. “Do you not want to?”

Kisara let out a purring laugh from deep within her throat, but Kaiba was the one that spoke. “I’ve… been dreaming of this since I was a child. This was why I got my pilot’s licence, hoping it I could pretend it was just a bit like flying with her. I can’t believe... this is really happening.” 

Kaiba stepped forward then, his fingers finding their hold and climbing onto her back as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

This time, Atem hesitated. He looked back at his town, his palace, one last time.

And then he turned with a smile on his face and joined Kaiba on Kisara’s back, wrapping his arms around the taller man and burying his face in his coat. Kiaba put one hand over Atem’s, the other hitting “record” on his headgear and then finding a hold on Kisara’s neck. “Hang on. We’re taking off,” man and dragon spoke as one.

And then the three were in the air, her wings beating in sync with his breath, his heart hammering with exhilaration! Their accent slowed and she wheeled slowly in the sky like a great raptor, searching for their gateway home. From here they could see the whole city and kilometers beyond.

“Atem! Look.”

Atem’s hold tightened on Kaiba’s stomach. He’d looked back once. That was enough.

“Just once for me, okay? It's amazing!” 

Atem opened his eyes, seeing nearly his entire kingdom in a single glance. “It really is!” he shouted, still barely loud enough to be heard over the wind.

Kisara saw a telltale glimmer in the sand seconds later, beating her wings once more then tucking them in for a dive. She accelerated as she dove, her speed breakneck by the time she neared the pod, flaring her wings at the very last second and coming in for an astonishingly soft landing.

Kaiba climbed off first, helping Atem off after. Kaiba seemed to have, expectedly, enjoyed the little adrenaline rush more than Atem. He looked a bit queasy.

Blue Eyes lowered her head to Kaiba’s level one last time. He pressed a soft kiss between her eyes. “I love you, Kisara.”

“And I you, my fearless partner! May my flames light your path forward, forever!” 

With that, Kisara jumped straight into the air, the blast from her wings almost throwing Kaiba and Atem to the ground. She soared higher, faster, the sunlight reflecting off her scales too bright to look at- and then she vanished into the  _ Link _ in a sparkle of artificial blue light.

Atem’s hood had been blown off, his wild black hair bouncing as he jogged to the half-buried pod. Kaiba joined him, pressing a holographic button on his Duel Disk to open the lid. He climbed in, locking his safety belt into place. 

“I didn’t design this for two people, so you’ll have to sit behind me. It might get bumpy, so hold on tight.”

Atem stepped in gingerly, curling into a comfortable spot on Kaiba’s left and sitting his bag in his lap.

“Everything in?” Kaiba checked automatically before shutting the door. The screens lit up in a flash, his fingers typing and setting gauges deftly.

“Seto, I need to tell you-”

“Hang on,” he interrupted. “I’m running diagnostics. Let me concentrate.”

The tension rose in the air as Kaiba finished his task. “Everything seems to be fine. We’re ready to go any time. What were you saying?”

“Two things. I… I want to say thank you.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “Thank me when we get home safely. We might both burn up yet.”

“Not for this- not just for this. For everything. Being your friend… is an honor, Kaiba Seto. Thank you.”

Kaiba sighed. “You’re at your most unbearable when you’re sappy and sentimental, I hope you realize. What’s the second thing?”

“If you make it back and I don’t… or if you just don’t know what happens to me… You can’t tell Yuugi. Ever. Promise me that much, please.”

Kaiba met Atem’s eyes. “Consider it done. Now, if that’s all..?”

Atem nodded. Kaiba flipped a switch and a mechanical voice spoke;

**“Dimensional Emulator activated. Launching in three… two… one…”**

And then all he saw was light.

* * *

 

The blinding, all-encompassing light lessened to stars dancing behind his eyes as the familiar weightless sensation of the KC Space Elevator set in. Kaiba forced himself to breathe. He could feel his heart fibrillating, but none of the medical alerts he’d installed had gone off, so it must not have been too severe. His eyes were blurry and out of focus, but sharpening quickly. A second hand grabbed his and he felt a smile spread across his face. “We’re home,” he said as he felt the pod slow and click into place. 

The door swung open and the two were immediately mobbed by medical personnel, who, for their part, reacted quite quickly to having an unexpected passenger in the pod with him.

And said passenger slumping bonelessly to the floor.

The next few minutes were a complete blur in Kaiba’s mind- the medical staff insisted on splitting their number between the two of them, despite Kaiba’s repeated insistence that he was fine and Atem’s obviously perilous condition. He hadn’t needed medical attention- what he needed was for his entire team to help his friend, save maybe one of their number to keep Kaiba informed of developments. As it was, he could only hear snatches of chilling conversation as they happened;

“ _ No pulse. Beginning CPR…” _

_ “He’s flatlining…” _

_ “No response…” _

_ “Clear!” _

The lights flickered, and when they came back on, Kaiba had wrestled his way free from his unwanted helpers and made it close enough to see Atem…

Close enough to see as his body took his first breath in three thousand years. His breathing was shaky and shallow, his heartbeat unsteady and weak, but he was here, in one piece,  _ alive _ . 

Kaiba realized he’d been holding his breath as well. He let it out with an audible  _ sigh _ as the team placed an oxygen mask over Atem’s mouth. 

“Kaiba-dono.”

Kaiba turned to look at the stiff man in an impeccable black suit- Roland Isono, formerly a US Navy SEAL in his twenties and an ER doctor in his thirties, officially his bodyguard, but in truth the man single-handedly responsible for helping Mokuba keep Kaiba Corporation from crumbling to pieces during the six months he’d been in a coma and the Big Five had run amok. Saruwatari had put a bullet through his shoulder during Mokuba’s kidnapping- and Isono hadn’t even asked for a raise, citing his inability to keep Mokuba safe. Kaiba gave it to him anyway, along with a hefty holiday bonus and his absolute trust.

“Sir, The KCMC has some of the top doctors and first responders in the world. They can handle things from here.”

Kaiba nodded. “I suppose the data from my pod isn’t satisfactory?”

“I’d still like to run a full physical, sir. On Mokuba-dono’s orders.”

“‘Don’t let Nii-sama come home until he’s fully checked out,’ or something similar?”

“Something very similar. I believe the exact wording was ‘a single step out of the elevator.’ I seem to have failed my orders in that regard, sir. My deepest apologies.” He gave a short bow.

Kaiba gave one last wistful look towards Atem. His vitals seemed to be leveling out. “Alright, Isono. Let’s get this over with.”

* * *

 

Seto Kaiba really wasn’t sure what the point of having a limousine was, if all of its occupants were going to pile onto one side and lay on his lap. 

_ Not that I’m really complaining. About  _ **_that_ ** _. _

Mokuba and Atem’s wild black hair had morphed into a single, fluffy mass as the two napped on the way home. Kaiba wanted to take a nap, too.

But Kaiba was hooked up to an IV.

He glared daggers at the offending, completely unnecessary piece of medical equipment. He was perfectly capable of  _ drinking water _ without assistance, “dangerously severe dehydration” or no. 

Maybe he didn’t exactly have a right to complain, considering the line of bandages covering Atem’s arms. The vaccinations were completely necessary, as were the round of antibiotics he’d been put on as a precaution. Thankfully, Atem understood.

Even if he’d never had a shot before. And as it turned out, he was not actually okay with needles in the slightest. Kaiba could only imagine how scared he had been from considering Atem’s past- he’d never been afraid of needles himself, even as a child.

Kaiba felt the telltale curve of his circular driveway as Isono pulled in. He ruffled the undefined black mass with his free hand. “Everyone up. We’re home.”

Mokuba sat up and stretched. Atem blinked at Kaiba's face slowly, considering his words. 

“Seto… Iie?” he asked slowly, in Japanese.  _ Seto...House? _

Kaiba nodded. “Hai.”  _ Yes. _

Again, it really was ungrateful to complain. They both had made it back alive. Once Atem’s body had remembered how to function and his episode had passed, that just left Kaiba’s little dehydration issue and Atem’s completely useless immune system- both minor issues, all things considered. 

But the fact that Atem no longer had access to Yuugi’s memories and therefore, his grasp of the Japanese language had been reduced to what he could remember from the year he’d spent in Domino was…  _ annoying _ . Kaiba and Atem had crossed the boundaries of time and space to be together, only to have a language barrier slam between them like one final  _ Fuck You! _ from the universe.

It wasn’t a big deal. Atem was a fast learner. Kaiba could speak half a dozen languages fluently and another handful conversationally, picking up Egyptian would be a breeze. But it was just one more aggravating, unnecessary step. One more needle under his skin that didn’t need to be there. One more thing he wanted to talk to Atem about and couldn’t.

Later that night he buttoned up his pajamas to his neck in the bathroom mirror, then flipped his collar. He ran his hands over his throat, the concealer two or three shades too light for his current skin tone. No one would notice tonight, in the darkness. He’d have to buy a darker shade in the morning. Kaiba turned on his heel and walked into his bedroom.

Atem was already dressed in a pair of Mokuba’s pajama pants and utterly unconscious, right in the middle of his bed. Kaiba huffed.

_ I don’t know what he’s planning, but I am Not sleeping on the couch. _

He glanced again at the screen of his laptop and let out a quiet chuckle at the breaking news story;  _ Earlier today, a small but intense fire broke out in Domino City Museum, destroying a 3000 year old Egyptain pharaoh’s mummy. The cause of the fire is not currently clear but arson is suspected-  _ and closed the screen of his laptop before he climbed into bed, shoving Atem into a more manageable position. The smaller man let out a soft word of complaint, and the sleepy squabble  for territory began, continuing until they were both under the covers, Kaiba’s arm under Atem’s head and Atem’s fingers fisted in the front of his shirt. Atem was back to sleep in seconds, and Kaiba prepared for his nightly ritual of staring into the darkness and hoping for eventual release that may or may not come.

The wait wasn’t so bad, tonight. Kaiba had only one thought on his mind as he drifted to sleep;

_ Maybe it’s not so bad, having to learn a new language. There are so many things I want to tell Atem, things that right now I don’t know how to say… _

_ Maybe it’s time for some new words. _

 

**_~FIN~_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Research notes time!
> 
> A grandmother from Egypt- I've always found it interesting that Seto has an Egyptian name despite being a Japanese character. I don't think headcannoning him as mixed race is too big of a stretch.
> 
> Yuugi's hair vs. Atem's- There are a couple of cosplayers I had a mental image of when describing their appearance, who I feel have done the absolute best interpretation of the boys' hair. kyokostar and sombreset on Tumblr both are very close to what I picture Yuugi's hair as looking like- while for Atem, my only influence was Shaquille Dent. I feel like Yami Yuugi's would be somewhere between the two- spiky, curly, and utterly gravity defying.
> 
> Hair dye- Ancient Egyptians did actually have hair dye! Hair bleaching was also recorded in ancient Greece as far back as the last 50 years of BC. This is a pretty long time after Atem would have lived, but just because there aren't any earlier recordings of it, that doesn't mean it didn't exist before then. If I can get away with saying that magic used to exist in the real world, I think I can get away with fudging the timeline a bit.
> 
> Plastic card sleeves- Atem, Yuugi and Seto use clear sleeves on their cards and you will never convince me otherwise. You don't have cards as valuable as Blue Eyes or the God Cards and just... handle them.
> 
> Mana as Atem's sister- there's nothing in either the manga or anime to suggest this, I just threw it in because I felt like it.
> 
> Atem's personality- Atem wasn't a terribly nice character at the beginning of the Manga- probably mostly due to Zorc's influence, but I feel like his black-and-white views of justice may very well date back to his time alive. I feel like Atem's status as a "Good is not Nice" type of character is under-explored in fanworks for this series. I can see why, with the Toei anime toning him down, DM cutting out most of his antics completely and the dub... being a 4kids dub, but that doesn't make me want fic exploring this any less.
> 
> Christian Rosenkreuz- The real-life person C. Seto Rosenkreuz from the PS2 game Duelists of the Roses is based on. I highly recommend giving his Wikipedia page a glance, it's very interesting!
> 
> Pre-Prepartion of Rites- There seems to be conflicting opinions on whether this card can search for Chaos Form and Chaos MAX or not. The general consensus seems to be that it legally can't, but for the sake of this fic, it can.
> 
> Changes since KC bought I2- we don't really know what happened to Industrial Illusions after Pegasus' death. KC probably bought them out, seeing as they seem to have exclusive control over the Duel Monsters brand after that point. All the changes mentioned happened GX, 5Ds, Zexal, Arc-V and Vrains in the years since the manga ended, but seeing as Kaiba Corp seems to be manufacturing the equivalent of Iphones in the year 1999, I felt it was alright to fudge the timeline... again.
> 
> With Eyes of Blue series- Support cards for Blue Eyes White Dragon, largely made up of Synchros and Tuners. They're not as powerful as the Blue Eyes cards released for DSoD and after, which is why I didn't use them here.
> 
> "I'd hate to have to model that"- Nappy hair is notoriously difficult to model and rig in the gaming/VFX industry. That's why you see a lot of black characters with dreads, braids, one-piece afros with jiggle physics or just straight hair.
> 
> The Domino Museum- There is a mummy featured in the manga chapter where Shadi is introduced that is implied, but never outright stated to be Atem. The fire is a reference to the Egyptian myth of the Bennu- a mythological creature that was likely the origin of the Greek Phoenix.


End file.
